Lake County: Massive mail in voting regist. fraud...

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County investigates voter registration fraud
Forms listed dead people, pets
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October 18, 2008
By JIM NEWTON <!-- e --><a href="mailto:jnewton@scn1.com">jnewton@scn1.com</a><!-- e -->

Pointing to more than 1,000 "compromised" registration forms received by her office, County Clerk Willard Helander called Friday for voter registration reform to protect the integrity of elections.

Meanwhile, the Lake County State's Attorney's Office and the Lake County Sheriff's Office confirmed the initiation of a joint investigation into the registration forms, which include non-existent addresses, dead people and even pets.
» Click to enlarge image
On this voter registration application, the applicant was dead -- and a goldfish.

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Lake County Clerk Willard Helander talks about the bad voter registration applications received by her office.
(Michael Schmidt/News-Sun)

Helander said information on the registrations, all of which involved mail-in voter registration forms, has also been forwarded to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's office, the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI.

Receipt of the false registrations is "unprecedented" in Lake County and could call into question the integrity of election results in extremely close races, Helander said.

"We are concerned," she said. "If you have a race that is decided by two or five or 10 votes, you're going to care greatly."

Officials indicated that more than 800 of the forms were turned into the clerk's office by a Chicago resident claiming to represent several community organizations in Lake County.

The registrations involved were primarily located in eastern areas of the county, Helander said, and concentrated in the 10th Congressional District where Republican U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk faces Democratic challenger Dan Seals.

Standing in front of stacks of the registrations in question, Helander said they point to the need for tighter registration guidelines, and possibly the elimination of mail-in registration, which requires no photo identification or second-person verification.

"Even if we know this is fraud, the persons that did this may never be caught," Helander said. "This system has no safeguards."

Sheriff Mark Curran said the investigation has the potential to result in serious charges.

"Clearly there are forgery issues and what have you that are felonies and serious issues that are being investigated," Curran said. "At this point it's hard to say how far it's going to lead."

In addition to the registrations turned in by the individual, Helander said she is also very concerned about registrations that involved valid addresses but were not filled out by the residents of those homes.

Some residents who received mass-mailed registration forms with incorrect information such as the name of deceased people or pets brought those forms to the attention of the clerk's office.

Helander said anyone who has received suspicious registration materials should contact her office at (847) 377-2410.

Helander said some of the mass-mailed forms received locally with incorrect information were sent by a nationwide group, Women's Voices. Women Vote, a voter empowerment group for unmarried women.